Synaptic Vesicle - The Synaptic Vesicle Cycle

The Synaptic Vesicle Cycle

The events of the synaptic vesicle cycle can be divided into a few keys steps:

1. Trafficking to the synapse

Synaptic vesicle components are initially trafficked to the synapse using members of the kinesin motor family. In C. elegans the major motor for synaptic vesicles is UNC-104. There is also evidence that other proteins such as UNC-16/Sunday Driver regulate the use of motors for transport of synaptic vesicles.

2. Transmitter loading

Once at the synapse, synaptic vesicles are loaded with a neurotransmitter. Loading of transmitter is an active process requiring a neurotransmitter transporter and a proton pump ATPase that provides an electrochemical gradient. These transporters are selective for different classes of transmitters. Characterization of unc-17 and unc-47, which encode the vesicular acetylcholine transporter and vesicular GABA transporter have been described to date.

3. Docking

The loaded synaptic vesicles must dock near release sites, however docking is a step of the cycle that we know little about. Many proteins on synaptic vesicles and at release sites have been identified, however none of the identified protein interactions between the vesicle proteins and release site proteins can account for the docking phase of the cycle. Mutants in rab-3 and unc-18 alter vesicle docking or vesicle organization at release sites, but they do not completely disrupt docking. SNARE proteins, do not appear to be involved in the docking step of the cycle.

4. Priming

After the synaptic vesicles initially dock, they must be primed before they can begin fusion. Priming prepares the synaptic vesicle so that they are able to fuse rapidly in response to a calcium influx. This priming step is thought to involve the formation of partially assembled SNARE complexes. The proteins Munc13, RIM, and RIM-BP participate in this event. Munc13 is thought to stimulate the change of the t-SNARE syntaxin from a closed conformation to an open conformation, which stimulates the assembly of v-SNARE /t-SNARE complexes. RIM also appears to regulate priming, but is not essential for the step.

5. Fusion

Primed vesicles fuse very quickly in response to calcium elevations in the cytoplasm. This fusion event is thought to be mediated directly by the SNAREs and driven by the energy provided from SNARE assembly. The calcium-sensing trigger for this event is the calcium-binding synaptic vesicle protein synaptotagmin. The ability of SNAREs to mediate fusion in a calcium-dependent manner recently has been reconstituted in vitro. Consistent with SNAREs being essential for the fusion process, v-SNARE and t-SNARE mutants of C. elegans are lethal. Similarly, mutants in Drosophila and knockouts in mice indicate that these SNARES play a critical role in synaptic exocytosis.

6. Endocytosis

This accounts for the re-uptake of synaptic vesicles in the full contact fusion model. However, other studies have been compiling evidence suggesting that this type of fusion and endocytosis is not always the case.